*
Chapter 3
Blake
“You heard from Brynn tonight?”
Abe and I were camped out in front of the TV vegging out from our last call. “Yeah. She left me a message about going out with Karen to Miguel’s. She said a whole lot more than that, but she was too drunk to make out much else.”
“Drunk?”
Abe nodded his head. “Endless margaritas, brother. Her and Karen are probably smashed.” Abe chuckled and shook his head. “She did mention an Uber so I’m not worried.”
He wasn’t worried? His woman was drunk off her ass with my woman. “You really think they’re okay?”
He glanced over at me. “Yeah, they are. Now ask my why I’m not worried.”
“Why the hell aren’t we worried.”
“Because Mike and Cal happen to be at Miguel’s tonight too.” Mike and Cal worked with Abe and me. They were on their second day off.
“Seriously?”
Abe nodded his head. “Yeah. They are also going to follow their Uber home to make sure they are fine.”
Abe had thought of everything. If I had known where the girls were, I would have done the same thing. Karen hadn’t called or texted me all day though. “You sure Karen is okay?”
“I haven’t talked to her, numbnuts. You wanna know if she is okay, then call her.” He pointed the remote at the TV, and turned up the volume. He was done talking.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, and headed down the stairs. Most of the guys had fallen into bed when we had gotten back which was a smart thing to do since we never knew when our next call was going to come in, but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to sleep until I talked to Karen.
I swiped right on her name, and put the phone to my ear. I leaned against the ladder truck, and waited for her to answer.
“Heeeey.”
She was tanked. “Hey, beautiful.”
The slurping from her finishing the final dredges of her drink echo in the phone. “That is sooo good.”
“Yeah?”
She giggled. “Yup, yup. Whatcha doing?” A small burp erupted from her mouth, and she peeled off into a chorus of giggles and snorts. “Did you hear that?”
“I heard it.” I couldn’t help but chuckle. “You having fun?”
“The best,” she slurred. “Although it would be waaaay better if you were here.”
“Is that so?” It was good to know that I was on her mind even when she was out.
Karen burst into another peel of laughter. “I… I was… oh God,” she hiccupped. “I nodded my head… like you…” She couldn’t control her laughter, and the phone thudded to the floor.
“Sweet nibblets, Karen. You dropped your Blake.” The phone was muffled and in the background I heard Brynn and Karen cackling like a bunch of hens.
“My Blake?” Karen called. “Here, Blake Blake Blake.” More muffled noise, and finally I heard Karen’s voice clearly. “You’re on the floor, Blake.”
“Uh, no I’m not, beautiful.”
“Yes, you were. That’s why I’m on the floor now too. I wanted to be with you.”
What in the world was she talking about? “How many drinks have you had?”
“Um… let me think. I better use my fingers. One, two, four, six. I’ve had two.”
Gotta love the math of a drunk person. “You’re okay, right?”
“Oh toooootally. Karen and I ate like a taco together, and now I’m sitting on the floor with you.” She squealed into the phone. “Oh! Your friends are here too. They came in like an hour ago, and talked to us. Brynn offered them some of her taco, but they refused. It’s kind of rude to refuse someone's taco, don’t you think so?”
Jesus. Karen was going to shit a brick when I told her about this conversation when she was sober. “Probably don’t offer your taco to anyone.”
She blew a raspberry into the phone. “You’re rude too. We just wanted to make sure the guys had enough to eat.”
“Karen! Where are you?” Brynn called in the background.
“I’m on the floor with Blake,” Karen called to her.
This conversation was such a cluster fuck. “Why don’t you get off the phone, beautiful, and maybe head home with Brynn. I bet my friends will give you guys a ride home.”
“I can’t ask them that. I don’t know their names.”
“Why don’t you hand them the phone so I can talk to them. I’ll get everything squared away for you.”
She sighed. “You’re so good to me. I should call the station and tell them you have to come rescue me.”
Uh, that would not be good. “I can’t come get you right now, but I know the guys will take care of you. Crawl out from under the table, and hand them your phone.”
“Okie dokie pokey. But only because I love you.”
The phone slid from my fingers, and clattered to the cement floor. Holy fuck. I snatched the phone off the floor. “Karen. Karen?” I called.
“It’s Cal, dingleberry,” he barked into the phone. “You know your woman is drunk?”
“Yeah, I kind of figured from the conversation we just had.” I was confused about the whole thing except her telling me that she loved me. “You think you can take the two of them home for me and Abe?”
“What’s in it for me?”
Of course Cal was going to be a dick. “Fifty bucks and a bottle of Jack.”
“A big bottle. Not one of those little three dollar ones.”
Cal knew me too well. “Yeah, yeah. A big one.”
Cal humphed. “Fine. You got a deal.”
“Give the phone back to Karen.”
“With pleasure,” Cal mumbled. Cal was a good guy, but he was a bit of an ass.
“Heeey,” Karen sang into the phone.
“Hey, beautiful.”
“Whatcha doing?”
It was like she was that damn fish from that Disney movie. She couldn’t remember the things we had said two minutes ago. “I’m at work, but Cal and Mike are going to give you a ride home.”
“Sweeeet. I totally cannot walk right now, so driving would be, like, a no for me. It’s a no for me,” she said firmly.
“That’s okay, beautiful. Cal will get you home no problem.”
“Good, good. Did you know that Brynn is with me?”
Jesus. Karen was a friendly forgetful drunk. “I did. Make sure you go home with her.”
“I will. I’m totally going to sleep with her. Well, not with her, but you know, with her.” She sighed heavily. “Blake?”
“Uh, yeah?” I had no idea what was about to come out of her mouth.
“I’m totally drunk and nothing makes sense in my head right now.”
She wasn’t going to remember a word of this conversation in the morning. “You’re doing good. Just make sure to pay the bill, grab your purses, and get a ride home with Cal. That’s all you need to remember.”
“Pay, purse, ride Cal. I can remember that.”
“Just get a ride from Cal, don’t ride him,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, that too.”
It was a good thing I trusted Cal. “Text me when you get home, yeah?”
“You got it, parky. I mean sparky. Totally meant sparky,” she slurred.
I finally hung up the phone after talking to Cal one more time.
“Jesus. Were you talking to a three year old or Karen?”
I looked up to see Abe leaning against the ladder truck. “Karen. Though she was more like that blue fish from that one movie.”
“Dory?”
“The fact that you knew that is weird.”
Abe shrugged. “It was on the other weekend and I couldn’t find the remote to change it.”
I shook my head and shoved my phone in my pocket. “Cal and Mike are giving the girls a ride home. They were pretty trashed.”
“I’ll call Brynn in a little bit to make sure they got home safe.”
I looked down at the floor. “You think it means anything that Karen said she l
oved me?”
Abe whistled. “And here you were worried she only wanted in your pants.”
“Yeah. That was a zero to sixty moment.”
“So now you can stop being a pansy, and get the girl, bro.” Abe clapped me on the shoulder.
“If she even remembers that she said it.”
“You know if you say it when you’re drunk you actually mean it.”
A huge grin spread across my lips. “Then you better have a talk with Brynn cause she was trying to talk Mike and Cal into eating her taco tonight.”
Abe’s face turned bright red. “What in the hell are you talking about?”
I held up my hands. “In her defense, I think she meant an actual taco, and not her lady taco.”
Abe pointed his finger at me. “This is all your fault.”
“My fault?” I scoffed. “All I was doing was making sure Karen was okay. I can’t help the fact Brynn is so giving with her taco.”
Abe’s face turned a dark shade of red, and a vein in his throat started to throb. “I’m calling Brynn,” he muttered tightly. “Come get me if you need me.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and walked out the door.
Man. Abe was a little strung out about Brynn and her taco.
I pulled the phone out again when it dinged to see that Karen had sent me a picture message. I had the best tacos of my life. It was a picture of Karen and Brynn in what I assumed was Cal’s car. Karen had her head resting on Brynn’s shoulder with a loopy smile on her face.
This was what I loved about Karen. It was only a silly picture with Brynn, but you could see in her eyes, down to her soul. She was happy. She looked carefree. She looked amazing.
She was the woman I had fallen in love with.
*
Chapter 4
Karen
“Shh…” I held up my hand and closed my eyes. Lord have mercy did I have a splitting headache.
“You should have taken that aspirin and slept on the bed last night.”
My eyes snapped open. “I didn’t sleep on the bed?” I hadn’t woken up on the bed, but I knew when I was drinking I was all over the place. The fact Brynn and I managed to make it home at all was damn amazing.
Brynn shook her head. “Uh, no. You told me about ten times that Blake was the only person you would sleep with. Then you went off on a tangent about down pillows and how Blake’s shoulder is the best place to sleep. I will warn you now, you offered to let me take Blake’s shoulder out for a test drive.”
My jaw dropped. “No I didn’t,” I whispered.
Brynn nodded her head. “You sure did. For the record, I did refuse.” Brynn pointed to the boxes that were sitting on the end of the counter. “You need to deliver those.”
“Huh?” All the orders for the day had been picked up, and there hadn’t been any deliveries in the books.
“Fire station. I told Abe you would be there by one.”
I glanced at the clock over my shoulder. “You do know that is it twelve fifty, right?”
She clicked her tongue. “Then you better get a move on it. You don’t want to be late.”
“Why?”
“Why what?” she retorted.
“Why in the heck am I taking donuts to the fire station?” Did she not see that I was hanging on by a thin thread? I barely had enough to run the front today, let alone get in a car and drive to the fire station. Also, did she not see what I was wearing? “Look at me. I’m not fit to go to Walmart, let alone to the fire station.”
Brynn looked me up and down. “You look a little tired, but you’re hardly ‘People of Walmart’ material.”
Hair tossed into a mess knot on the top of my head. Grungy yoga pants I had grabbed off my floor this morning. The fact if they were clean or not was debatable. “I’m wearing a Hanson t-shirt, Brynn. Blake cannot see me in this.” My love for Hanson was unwavering, but I didn’t need to fly that geek flag in Blake’s face yet.
“I doubt he even knows who Hanson is.”
As if that was going to make this situation any better. “You and I both know that will be rectified soon.” Maybe not today, but you better believe that Blake was going to know who Hanson was, and that they were my band. My. Band.
She grabbed the large box that was filled with a shit ton of donuts, and thrust it into my chest. “Keep the apron on. Take the box. Give the guys the donuts.”
I pouted out my bottom lip. “You’re supposed to be my friend. Not make me do things I don’t want to do.”
“You’re acting like I’m making you walk all the way there barefoot on a bed of nails. Take the box,” she ordered, pushing it into me more.
I grabbed the box and stomped my foot. “This isn’t fair. I’m not even getting anything out of this. You could at least promise me dinner or something.”
“No,” she wagged her finger in my face, “we are not going out because we went out last night, and we are too old to be doing that two nights in a row. Neither of us will be able to move when our alarms go off.”
She was right. It wasn’t that we were super old, but we weren’t the twenty one year olds that we were ten years ago. We didn’t bounce back from a night of drinking like we did back then. “Take-out. I get to pick.”
Brynn sighed. “Fine, if that’s what will get your ass out the door, then yes, I agree to whatever take-out you want.”
“I would totally pump my fist in the air if I weren’t holding fifty pounds of donuts.” These damn things were heavy. “I saw you filled the ones in the case extra full today.”
She put her hands on my shoulders, turned me towards the door, and gave me a push. “You can never have too much filling.”
“You can when the donut weighs over a pound.”
“You’re crazy,” she scoffed. “I didn't put that much in them. If I had, you would have ate three instead of two.”
She had me there. I was a sucker for a cream or jelly filled donut. “I only had two because I was hungover. Gatorade and donuts don’t exactly go well together.” When I had ran to the gas station this morning lemon lime was the only flavor they had. What kind of gas station didn’t have at least six kinds of Gatorade? Evidently the one I had stopped at.
“And that is why we don’t drink much. We can’t handle the hangovers,” she called.
I managed to snag my purse off the hook under the counter. “You know you could at least help me out the door, right?” I glanced over my shoulder and saw Brynn leaning against the workbench with her arms crossed over her chest.
“You’re doing just fine on your own. Make sure the door don’t hit ya on the way out.”
I rounded the front counter. “I would say it’s nice that you’re so concerned about me, but I know you just don’t want me to drop the donuts.”
Brynn hollered something, but I was out the door, resigned to the fact that I just needed to get the donuts to the station.
I hadn’t talked to Blake except for a couple of short messages since the last time I had seen him. I was in a strange mood to boot.
The next time I saw Blake I had decided that we were going to talk, and figure out what the hell we were doing.
I hadn’t expected that time to be when I was hungover, and three steps away from falling over in exhaustion.
Maybe I would postpone that talk for another day.
*
Chapter 5
Blake
“Your girl is here.”
I glanced up from the hose I was coiling. “What?”
Rick nodded over my shoulder. “You’re girl just walked in with a huge ass box in her arms. You think that’s a cake?” Rick glided over to Karen who was standing at the door. She was surrounded by three guys, and two, including Rick, were making their way over to her.
I should have expected this. Hell, I knew this was what happened when a beautiful woman walked into the station. Just normally the beautiful woman wasn’t mine.
Karen looked like she had just rolled out of bed. Her fiery red hair was piled on t
op of her head, my fingers itched to pull out the tie she had holding it up, and watch it cascade over her shoulders. The tight black pants she had on clung to her fit, trim legs, and I imagined peeling them off of her. She still had her apron on from the bakery, and looked adorable as fuck.
Adorable as fuck was an accurate description of Karen.
“Anderson! Get your ass over here!” Abe lifted his hand in the air, motioning me over.
I dropped the hose that I had been working on, and casually made my way over to Karen. I didn’t want to look to eager even though it was taking everything inside of me to not run over to her and pull her into my arms.
She watched me, her eyes never leaving my direction. Two of the guys were talking to her, but they could have been speaking Greek and she never would have known she was so trained on me.
I didn’t even think, I just moved to her. “Beautiful,” I murmured. I grabbed her hand, lacing my fingers through hers, and pulled her close.
“Hey,” she whispered.
Everything faded away, and the only thing I could see was Karen. I tugged her arm, and pulled her to the other side of the station behind the ladder truck.
“What are we doing?” she giggled.
I didn’t answer her. I didn’t have the words to say what I was feeling or doing. I pushed her against the wall, and molded my body to hers. “Shh, beautiful.”
“Shh?” she giggled. “I don’t think we really need to be quiet. Everyone just saw you drag me over here like a madman.”
She was right, but I didn’t care. “We’ll talk in a minute.” I had to kiss her. The need was too much to ignore.
“Blake, are y-.”
I threaded my fingers through her hair, pressing her farther against the wall and kissed the hell out of her. A gasp escaped her mouth but her lips yielded against mine, my tongue gliding against hers.
The kiss built, starting out slow and sweet. It soon burned like a raging fire, till her hands were pulling at my shirt, and my hands slid down her arms, and over to her lush ass.
She moaned my name against my lips, and worked her hands under my shirt. The feel of her fingers against my bare skin seared it, claiming me as hers.
Five Alarm Donuts: Donut Day Collaboration Page 2
